US Representative Lauren Boebert was well on her method to winning the Republican primary for her newly elected constituency in eastern Colorado on Tuesday evening against five other candidates. The election campaign was supposed to make a decision the conservative hardliner's future in Congress.
In initial results posted at 7:27 p.m. on the Colorado Secretary of State's website, she was ahead with 29,700 votes, or 43% of the overall. Boebert was followed by Deborah Flora with 16%, state Rep. Mike Lynch with 12%, Logan County Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg with 11%, state Rep. Richard Holtorf with 9.9% and Peter Yu with 8.2%.
The Associated Press called the race for Boebert at 19:22
“2024 is the year we take back Colorado and our nation,” Boebert said from a small stage at The Grainhouse restaurant on RainDance National Golf Course in Windsor. “We know our rights come from God, not from corrupt politicians.”
Boebert, wearing a black dress and cowboy boots with an American flag motif, said she heard only whispers from people within the room about her early lead and didn’t claim victory on stage. She appealed to voters to support former President Donald Trump in November.
“President Trump needs us now more than ever,” she pleaded.
When Fox News, broadcast on the large screens within the Grainhouse, declared Boebert the winner, the hall erupted into loud cheers.
Democrat Tricia Calvarese, a labor representative, led that party's three-candidate primary. (See below for more information on that race.)
In recent weeks, signs on the Republican side have pointed to a possible victory for Boebert, given the massive field of candidates and her name recognition. Earlier this month a survey showed her He leads all other candidates by 35 percentage points, but has a major share of undecided voters within the sprawling 4th Congressional District, which incorporates much of the Eastern Plains and Douglas County within the southern suburb of Denver.
The Democratic primary was also a good race, however the road to the overall election on November 5 might be an uphill battle for the winner of that nomination in a congressional district that is taken into account essentially the most Republican in Colorado. The district, which stretches from the Nebraska state line to the Oklahoma state line and from the Front Range to the Kansas state line, shows a Republicans have a 20 percentage point lead over registered Democratsalthough greater than 40% of its voters don’t belong to any religious community.
No Democrat has won within the 4th Congressional District since Betsy Markey 16 years ago.
The race for the 4th District was turned on its head last fall when incumbent Ken Buck said he wouldn’t run to defend his seat in 2024. He later resigned his seatin March, resulting in a separate special election on Tuesday to fill the seat for the rest of that term.
This opened the race for greater than a dozen candidates on either side of the political spectrum – including Boebert, who said in the ultimate days of 2023 that she would Waiver of re-election within the third Congressional District and take a look at their luck within the more conservative 4th.
The two-term congresswoman faced bleak prospects in her original district. she won in 2020as a result of the fundraising skills of her Democratic opponent Adam Frisch, who almost beat them in 2022 although the district on the western slope has a wealthy red tone. Behavior at a performance of the Broadway touring musical “Beetlejuice” in Denver in September, which made national headlines, prompted some distinguished Colorado Republicans to go away from her.
Boebert, who’s endorsed by soon-to-be Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, was immediately accused of being a fortune hunter for suddenly changing her constituency. But she dominated the fundraising game and was in a position to reap the benefits of her high profile over her five remaining Republican opponents.
Several of her major opponents are longtime residents of the 4th District, most notably Sonnenberg, also a former state representative. Holtorf runs a cattle ranch near Akron and Lynch lives in Wellington.
Flora, a former radio host, has placed her bet on Douglas, the district's most populous county, where she has lived for half a dozen years. Yu, a Weld County business owner, is the last Republican within the race.
Results of the Democratic primaries
On the Democratic side, repeat candidate Ike McCorkle ran against political newcomers Calvarese and John Padora. Initial results showed Calvarese leading with 15,945 votes, or 46% of the overall, followed by McCorkle with 41% and Padora with 13%.
Calvarese also ran within the county's special election. Her Republican opponent was former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez, a Republican who didn’t run in the first for the following term. Lopez had a 12-point lead over Calvarese as of seven:45 p.m.
McCorkle, the defeated by Buck in 2020 and 2022raised plenty of money within the last fundraising cycle. From April 1st to June fifth, he collected greater than $460,000 from donors — and outraised Boebert in the cash game by greater than $100,000. In essentially the most recent reporting period, he outraised his two Democratic opponents combined in fundraising by a 3-to-1 margin.
McCorkle served within the U.S. Marine Corps for 18 years before retiring in 2014. He previously told the Denver Post that he would proceed to run for the 4th District seat until he won.
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